KFC chickens out of health claims

Fast food chain KFC has pulled a controversial advertising campaign in which it claimed fried chicken was good for you following an unprecedented public protest.

The adverts' claim that eating fat-filled fried chicken products could form part of a healthy diet provoked an outcry.

The climbdown comes less than a month into the campaign and will prove hugely embarrassing for the company, which is trying to turn around its image.

One advert showed a man putting his new svelte figure down to "eatin' chicken". Another showed a woman returning home in the evening and announcing to her husband: "Y'know how we've been talking about eating better? Well, it starts today!", before placing a bucket of KFC fried chicken down in front of him.

KFC's head of marketing said consumers "should no longer feel guilty about eating fried chicken. ... With more and more Americans on diets and increasingly health-conscious, we thought it was important to get this information to consumers so they can judge for themselves how to make KFC part of their healthy lifestyle".

But the US trade magazine Advertising Age labelled the campaign "laughable" and "damaging" and called for the ads to be pulled off the air immediately, while the US trade watchdog launched an immediate investigation into complaints that the adverts were deceptive.

Today KFC bowed to the pressure and instructed its advertising agencies to halt the adverts "for brand protection reasons".

The decision comes amid mounting concern about food advertising on both sides of the Atlantic, and on the same day as food giant Heinz pledged not to target any advertising for its products solely at pre-school children.

The company said the promise did not extend to using methods which might appeal to pre-school children, such as displaying characters from popular children's TV programmes on packaging.

Next week food companies including McDonald's, Cadbury and PepsiCo will be called to justify their marketing tactics to a committee of MPs investigating the causes of obesity.